A newfound giant turtle that lived 60 million years ago in what is now northwestern South America would have been more than a mouthful for a neighboring predator, the world’s largest snake Titanoboa.

The turtle’s huge carapace, or shell, was nearly circular, like a tire, the researchers said.

The fossil turtle was discovered in Colombia’s La Puente pit in the Cerrejón Coal Mine, made famous for its other treasures, including the extinct Titanoboa cerrejonensis, two crocodile species, Cerrejonisuchus improcerus and Acherontisuchus guajiraensis, as well as two turtle species, the small-car-size Carbonemys cofrinii and the thick-shelled Cerrejonemys wayuunaiki. (C. improcerus would have been an easy meal for the 45-foot, or nearly 14 meters, Titanoboa snake, said researchers who discovered the 6- to 7-foot-long crocodile.)

Named Puentemys mushaisaensis after the pit where it was found, the turtle, whose shell would have extended 5 feet (1.5 m) across, adds to growing evidence that tropical reptiles ballooned after the dinosaurs were wiped out.

Even with its mouth wide open, Titanoboa wouldn’t have been able to down this turtle, not whole at least. And its round, low-domed shape would have increased the surface area exposed to the sun to keep the cold-blooded turtle warm, said study researcher Carlos Jaramillo of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.

“The shell was far more rounded than a typical turtle,” Jaramillo told LiveScience.

Various factors, including plentiful food, fewer predators, large habitat and climate change, would have worked together to allow turtles and other animals to reach such relatively gargantuan sizes, scientists have suggested.

For instance, the warm weather where would’ve been beneficial for P. mushaisaensis and other ectotherms that rely on their surroundings to regulate their body temperature.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience.

Editor’s Note: This article was updated to correct a sentence about the 6- to 7-foot crocodile; it inaccurately said “snake.”

LiveScience.com (7/12)

***

The Cosmic Turtle Around the World

Japan:

In Japanese mythology, the tortoise supports the ‘Abode of the Immortals’ and the ‘Cosmic Mountain’, where the Cosmic Mountain relates to the axis mundi – the world axis.

Borobodur, Indonesia:

Borobodur turtle relief Photo: Borobodur.tv

Above turtle relief from the 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist Temple in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia, consisting of six square platforms topped by three circular platforms thought to have been founded around 800CE at the peak of the Sailendra dynasty when it was under the influence of the Srivijayan Empire (Malay empire in Sumatra) which had close relations and interactions — and often rivalries — with neighboring Java, Kambuja and Champa.

In nearby Bali, the Hindu influence is more prominent, where the turtle or tortoise is itself a sacred animal for Balinese Hindus, representing the Kurma Avatar or Bedawang Nala (Wisnu’s incarnation as a giant turtle supporting the world). Sea turtles are valued as sustainers of life on earth. Turtle meat was traditionally used as offerings during the religious ceremonies and a few Hindu ceremonies customarily also used a turtle head as a part of the offering, symbolizing the base of the world. Following conservation efforts, however, turtle meat consumption was reduced and the real turtle head offering replaced with symbols such as a drawing of a turtle or a turtle-shaped rice cake.

Early India: Buddhist Legends, Jataka

In the Hindu scriptures, the turtle/tortoise is a solar symbol and the great sage Kasyapa (Sanskrit for tortoise) is the father of Aditya, the Sun. The story of the Historical Buddha’s birth as a tortoise (in his past lives, before becoming the Buddha) is featured in Indian reliefs of the first gallery balustrade, where a total of five panels present the culminating scenes from a story called the Kaccapavadana. Kasyapa is particularly appropriate representation for a past life of the Sakyamuni, who was sometimes called the “Kinsman of the Sun” (Adityabandu).

In Indian mythology, the tortoise is said to be the first living creature – the progenitor, and is equated with the Pole Star, which is, by its alignment, related to the earth’s axis. The flat lower shell of the tortoise is the plane of the terrestrial world and its’ rounded upper shell is the celestial world (the canopy of the sky).

The tortoise is depicted supporting the elephant on whose back the world rests. The elephant is male, the tortoise female, so representing the two creative powers of ida and pingala (or yin and yang).

Symbolically the retraction of the tortoises head into its shell is regarded as a conscious turning inward as in meditation and therefore showing an advanced spiritual state.

One of the incarnations of the central deity, Vishnu (the Preserver), was as a tortoise – the progenitor of all living creatures.

The Devas lost their strength and powers due to a curse by the sage Durvasa because Indra, the king of the Devas, had insulted the sage’s gift (a garland) by giving it to his elephant (Airavata) which trampled upon it. Thus, after losing their immortality and kingdom, they approached Lord Vishnu for help.

Vishnu suggested that they needed to drink the nectar of immortality to regain their lost glory. However, they needed to strive hard to acquire the nectar since it was hidden in the ocean of milk. After declaring a truce with their foes (Asuras), Indra and his Devas together with the Asuras, use the serpent Vasuki as a churning rope and the mount Mandara as the churning staff.

When they began churning, the mount began sinking into the ocean. Taking the form of a turtle (Kurma), Vishnu bears the entire weight of the mountain and the churning continues.[1] Fourteen precious things come out of the ocean, culminating with Dhanvantari, the physician of the gods, appearing with the nectar of immortality. The Asuras immediately rush and grab the nectar while quarrelling among themselves. Vishnu again comes to the rescue in the form of a beautiful damsel, Mohini and tricks the Asuras and retrieves the potion which is distributed to the Devas. Though the Asuras realize Vishnu’s tricks, it is too late, as the Devas regain their renowned prowess and defeat them.

Africa:

The Yoruba of Africa (Y-DNA E1b1) developed a divination system called Ifa that used tortoise shells as an oracle.

This association of the tortoise with oracular powers is however, more well-known of the Chinese. The Yoruba have been found to be genetically related to the Chinese… 180 out of 188 SNPs, all but 8 are found in both the Chinese sequence as well as in the Yoruba sequence. The 180 SNPs that the Chinese and Yoruba male share that appear to be between the PO node (See “Comparison of Yoruba, Chinese…“)

China:

The Chinese are well-known for their ancient divining system or pyro-osteomancy (which was also practised in Japan since the Yayoi period) known as the Tortoise Oracle. The earliest pyro-osteomancy in China using turtle plastrons (shells) as well as the bones of sheep, deer, cattle, and pigs, was known from prehistoric east and northeast Asia… uncovered in especially abundant numbers from archaeological sites from the Shang Dynasty in China. The site of Anyang had over 10,000 of these objects, primarily ox shoulder blades and turtle shells carved with archaic forms of Chinese characters, used for divination between the 16th and 11th century BC. One early method of divination was to heat animal bones in a fire and study the cracks that appeared; another method was to interpret the markings on tortoise shells. Such methods were probably employed to consult about affairs of state, fortunes of war, proposed marriages etc.

This oracular connection of the tortoise is likely connected to the legend of the I Ching’s origin:

Around 3000 BC, the Emperor Fu-hsi (Fu-xi) was meditating by the Yellow River, when a tortoise emerged from the water and the markings on its shell revealed to him the trigrams of the I Ching. The 8 trigrams were later paired to produce a more sophisticated system with 64 hexagrams. (Source: Tortoises, I Ching and the Magic Squares)

This next legend has echoes of the Indian myths and thus may have diffused via the northwest Vedic India (dates back at least 3100 BCE):

The creator goddess Nüwa (or Nukua) cut the legs off the giant sea turtle Ao (鳌) and used them to prop up the sky after Gong Gong damaged the Buzhou Mountain that had previously supported the heavens.

In Chinese culture, especially under the influence of Taoism (道教) the tortoise is the symbol of heaven and earth, its shell compared to the vaulted heaven and the underside to the flat disc of the earth. The tortoise was the hero of many ancient legends. It helped the First Chinese Emperor to tame the Yellow River, so Shang-di rewarded the animal with a life span of Ten Thousand Years. Thus the tortoise became a symbol for Long Life…which is likely why stone grave steles on a stone tortoise are commonly found or tomb objects seen in China-Mongolia, Korea and Japan. The tortoise is also regarded as an immortal creature. This probably indicates the symbolism of rebirth and regeneration cycle of life.

As there are no male tortoises — as the ancient believed — the female had to mate with a snake. Thus the tortoise embracing a snake became the protector symbol of the north, but since the word “tortoise” was taboo in Chinese, it was referred to as the “dark warrior” (genbu 玄武 ) and finally became Zhenwu (in Chinese Taoism), one of the four protector gods of the four directions. The symbol of Zhenwu, the Protector God of the North, as tortoise and snake (or tortoise entwined by a snake) dates back to the third century BC. For more on Taoism, see this online catalog about “Taoism and the Arts of China.”

The Dark Lord of the North, Xuan Wu (Xuan Wu Da Di) is a deity that comes from the prehistory of shamanic times (c. 6000 BC). In relatively modern Chinese prehistory (c. 1200 BC) the Dark Lord has become the human figure of a warrior with wild, unruly black hair, dressed in the primitive clothing of the tribal peoples of Neolithic times. He is powerful and strong deity capable of powerful punishments and redemptive deliverance. He is frequently depicted as the black tortoise who rules over the direction North in Chinese cosmology. He is called ” Xuan” for the color black and ” Wu” meaning “tortoise.

Prehistory: The Snake and the Tortoise
The Dark Lord speaks to a more ancient myth, that of the snake and the tortoise, in religious prehistory. Very ancient drawings of a black snake and tortoise together symbolize the Dark Lord. These reptilian creatures, the snake and tortoise, were probably themselves worshipped or were powerful medicine to help in overcoming one’s enemies. From Shang times onward, the flag bearing this symbol (snake and tortoise) was part of the king’s color guard. In Neolithic prehistory the tortoise — also known as the somber warrior — and snake together are the symbols or totems of a powerful shaman who fights evil against the demons of the Invisible World. According to ancient tradition, the black tortoise is yin; the snake yang. <end quote by Online Journal of the I Ching> — Source: The Online Journal of the I Ching, Yi Jing

“The tortoise has frequently been associated with the art of divination and is often credited with bringing to us the trigrams of the I Ching and also the idea of the Lo Shu magic square, which is much used in Feng Shui as well as in mystic sciences and sacred geometry throughout the world.

In Chinese symbolism the tortoise represents the beginning of creation, time, longevity and wisdom. It is said that the Goddess of Creation – Nu Kua used the feet of the Cosmic Tortoise for the ‘4 Corners of the Earth’ and its shell for the ‘Vault of the Heavens’.

Rarely is a distinction made between the tortoise and the turtle and together they are associated with the element of water, the season of winter and the direction of north – the direction of death / rebirth. The ability to slow down its body metabolism (apparently dying), during winter hibernation, and then awake renewed, reflect the death /rebirth association.

The tortoise is sometimes known as the ‘Dark Warrior’ and in this role its qualities are seen as strength, endurance and regeneration.

Its inanimate shell represents the lifeless rock that is acted upon by the elements of nature and by divine inspiration (the breath of the heavens) to produce life. This scenario is dramatised in the novel ‘A Journey to the West’ where Monkey (and by analogy humanity), is born as the Stone Monkey, from an egg shaped rock. Thus born into the light, he must become a warrior and encounter his dark or shadow side.

Another Chinese legend tells of how a family were trapped within a cave and were able to survive for many hundreds of years (yes – hundreds), by observing and copying a tortoise that was trapped in the cave with them.

A tortoise entwined with a snake is depicted on a statue attributed to Wu Tao-Tzu, the great Buddhist painter of the T’ang dynasty. Chinese artwork will sometimes show a snake and tortoise entwined and it is said that their coupling engendered the universe. Other artworks show a tortoise with a crane (also common in Korea and Japan (from the Nara period onwards), and when these two animals are together it is specifically a symbol that emphasises longevity.”

Mongolia:

Stele on the back of a tortoise statue, Southern statue, Karakorum, Inner Mongolia

Above a Mongolian stele stands on the back of stone tortoises similar to those found around the capital of the Mongol Empire Karakorum.

Korea:

The Korean (and Japanese) turtle tomb guardian genbu are likely derived from both the Indian and Chinese Shang dynasty myths.

Native Americans:

The turtle is one of their oldest, most sacred symbols. They believed that North America was created on the back of The Great Mother, a turtle. The turtle’s shell resembled a dome and was seen as a symbol of the dome of heaven -hence heavenly virtue. The turtle was carved and worn as a talisman for longevity and power over all forms of bad magic.

“According to some Native American tales, the Earth Diver turtle swam to the bottom of the water that stretched across the world. He surfaced with the mud which the creator used to make the earth. The turtle is a shore creature, using the land and the water. All shore areas are associated with doorways to the Faerie Realm. The turtle is sometimes known as the keeper of the doors. They were often seen as signs of fairy contact and the promise of fairy rewards.” — Turtle symbolism

In Sonora, northern Mexico, one of the ancient prehistoric burials excavated included a turtle shell on the individual’s chest.

Ancient Greece:

In classical mythology the tortoise is sacred to both Aphrodite (Venus) and Hermes (Mercury), two deities associated with sexuality. It has been suggested that one reason for this association may be the action of the tortoises head as it extends and retreats from its shell. Here again we see a connection fertility and with procreation.
Aesop, the Greek slave famous for his fables, tells us that the tortoise got its shell after declining an invitation from Zeus, with the excuse that, “There’s no place like home”. The response angered Zeus so much that he made the tortoise forever carry around his home. Despite this handicap, in another well known fable (associated with the loss of the gift of immortality from the gods), the tortoise is victorious in a race with a hare, proving that slow and steady can arrive first.

The Architectural Foundation on the Guifu Hill in the Zuling Mausoleum Precinct of the Liao Dynasty in Bairin Left Banner, Inner Mongolia.

ABSTRACT: In the summer 2007, Second Inner Mongolian Archaeological Team, IA, CASS and other institutions excavated the architectural foundation on the Guifu Hill in the Zuling Mausoleum of the Liao Dynasty. Facing the south, this architecture was an earth-and-timber structure. The whole architecture consisted of the foundation, the main body and the mounting paths on the two sides. The main body had three bays in both longitudinal and transverse directions. In the center of the main body was a tortoise-shaped stele pedestal, on the back of which was a socket for erecting the stele. The stele was a bilingual one bearing Khitan large script characters and Chinese characters recording the historic merits of Yelü Abaoji, the Emperor Taizu of the Liao Dynasty. Referred to the historic literature, this architectural foundation is defined as the monument tower of Emperor Taizu noted in Liao Shi (the History of the Liao Dynasty)

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Teppo matsuri
Procession of sacred horses to the shrine in this hunting ritual

The Age of the Gods [2] Susano-o no Mikoto
His Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augustness on the spot changed Kushinada-hime into a many-toothed close-comb which he stuck in the august knot of his hair. Then he made Ashi-nadzuchi and Te-nadzuchi to brew eight-fold sake, to make eight cupboards, in each of th

The Beltane Festival
The Beltane Festival is the Bull Festival; the celebration of the Dawning of the Age of Taurus! The words “Bel”, “Baal” and “Lord” are interchangeable. Indeed the words “Bel”, “Baal”, “Bull” and “Lord” are interchangeable. The Lord Baal, the Lord Bel and

The Black Road To The Sacred Tree by Robertino Solàrion
A Mayan creation story says the world was formed when the Milky Way, which they called The World Tree, was raised into the sky. The Great Celestial Bird landed in its branches. This bird may be represented by Cassiopeia, which looks like a bird’s outstret

The Cross, the Rabbi & The Skin Walker:Part 2
The author makes a host of connections between Old World and New World…we note those on the Kuroshio current’s path, fusang myth, common viral disease afflictions (evidenced by antibodies in South American Indians to HTLV1) between Japan-Inca

The Cross, the Rabbi & The Skin Walker:Part 2
A host of connections made between the Old World and New World including the Ainu-Inca virus antibodies; Kuroshio and fusang myths; Valdivia pottery; Olmec-Phoenician-Nubian-Egyptian resemblances;

The decline of the Lebanon Cedar
. Enlil had forecast that once humans entered the forest, they would destroy all the trees, the ‘divine beauty’. A great battle broke out between the demigod guarding the forest and the humans. Human greed won and the forest was completely stripped of it

The Double Goddess: Women Sharing Power By Vicki Noble
“It is now clear that the so-called Silk Road linked the Mediterranean with India and China for at least 4000 years, and one thing that stands out is the unique and enduring amalgam of Afro-Eurasian female shaman priestesses.”

The dragon in China and Japan
An examination of the mighty influence of Indian thought upon the Chinese and Japanese religion and folklore, and upon the Far-Eastern mind. Buddhism introduced a great number of Indian, not especially Buddhist, conceptions and legends, clad in a Bud dhi

The Dunhuang Star Atlas
AD 700 discovered in the Buddhist Mogao cave complex (Mogaoku 莫高窟), just outside the Silk Road town of Dunhuang in northwest China

The Earliest Astronomers
Looks at the possibility of the existence of a common body of astronomical knowledge the Paleolithic people had about the stars, constellations, solstices, etc… either locally or across the world

The Epic of Gilgamesh Tablet VII
Anu spoke to Enlil: ‘Because they killed the Bull of Heaven and have also slain Humbaba, the one of them who pulled up the Cedar of the Mountain must die!’ Enlil said:’Let Enkidu die, but Gilgamesh must not die!’ Bur the Sun God of Heavel replied to vali

The Gods of Eden
A contemplation of the origins and connections of Biblical, Sumerian and Zoroastrian winged angels, djinns and feathered shaman of Sumeria, Anatolia and Kurdistan, Cappadocian catacombs and Catal Hayuk, the Navel of the Underworld

The Himalaya, Mongolia and Maya connection
Tibet and Mongolia, were possibly the first societies to carve stones and crystals ritually into skulls by approximately 10,000 BCE. This article also touches upon the Jade Culture and the possiblity that the earliest pyramids may have been built by the M

The history of Chinese astronomy
Pottery now held at the Beijing Ancient Observatory and dated to the Neolithic period (over 5000 years ago) show images of the sun, and intricately carved animal shells and bones depict images of the stars as well as astronomical events such as star explo

The Legend of En no Gyoja and Shugendo
Legend of the mountain ascetic of the late 7th century. Like much about Shintō-Buddhist syncretism, his legend is riddled with folklore. He was a diviner at Mt. Katsuragi 葛城山 on the border between Nara and Osaka. Said to possess magical powers, he

The legend of Kamo-mioya Shrine (Shimo-gamo Shine)
Kamo Taketsu-no-mikoto descended upon the foot of Mt. Hiei at the time of Emperor Jinmu, several minutes later than the Kamowake-ikazuchi Shrine. Tamayori-hime-no-mikoto (princess) was doing laundry in the river, an arrow came floating down the stream. Wh

The Lost City Of Mahabalipuram.
The myths speak of six temples submerged beneath the waves with the seventh temple still standing on the seashore, and of a large city so beautiful the jealous gods sent a flood that swallowed it up entirely in a single day

The michibiki jizo — the guiding bodhisattva
According to local legend, the soul of a person that is about to die appears before this particular jizo the day before they pass away. The mother and child are shocked to see a whole parade of spirits appear before the statue — male and female, old and

The North Mountain, the North Pole and the Rock of Ages
The North Pole of the heavens was represented as the Mountain, the South Pole as the Pit. Early astronomers divided the heavens into three great divisions. The point called the Mountain, denominated the Highest, was the middle of the first division which

The Psychedelic Cult That Thrived For Nearly 2000 Years
The Eleusinian Mysteries, the longest lasting “mystery” religion of the Greco-Roman period, extending out of Mycenean traditions (approx. 1500 BC) and the Greek Dark Ages, centers on the story of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, and her daughter Perse

The Pyramids
An introduction to the lost secret of the wands of Horus by an archibishop of the Russian Orthodox Church

The Worship of Stars in Japanese Religious Practice
1 June 2007 Special Double Issue of CULTURE AND COSMOS: A Journal of the History of Astrology and Cultural Astronomy Vol. 10 no 1 and 2, Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter 2006. Including Meri Arichi: Seven Stars of Heaven and Seven Shrines on Earth: The Big

Thor, Norse thunder deity, warrior god of the Aesirs,
Oonce understood as the “high god” of the Nordic pantheon, later displaced (in rather late pagan mythography) by the All-Father, Odin, then taking on the role of the son of Odin and giantess Jörd (Jord, the Earth)

Tree of Aniconic Divinity
The green tree and the pillar were simultaneous phenomena in Bronze Age Mycenaean and Minoan art, and we may perhaps draw parallelel here for sasaki and pillar rituals in ancient Japan

Turkic "Balbal" in Japan by Mark A Riddle
An essay to support the theory that the unusual stone sculptures of the Rakan-ji of Houjou-chou are Turkic “balbal” associable with the presence of ethnically non-Japanese people in the Kibi/Harima area of early Japan

U no matsuri Rabbit Festival
Rabbit festival. A rite beginning with the first day of the rabbit in March and lasting to the next day of the rabbit thirteen days later at Aso Jinja in Ichinomiya-chō, Aso-gun, Kumamoto prefecture.

Ubaishi Rock (Old Woman Stone)
Sacred rock where ascetics are expected to crawl through a tunnel under the boulder 6 times, a ritual that recalls birth/passage through 6 realms of creation (rokudo) & the Amaterasu emerging from a cave episode.

Unelanuhi (Cherokee sun goddess)
Like the Japanese Amaterasu sun goddess, Unelanuhi, the Cherokee sun goddess, is one of the few female sun deities found throughout the worldwide pantheon of goddesses and gods

Use of Koh in shinto ritual (from the History of Incense)
Brought to Japan by Buddhist monks, the delicate scents of Koh (Japanese incense) amused and entertained the nobles in the Imperial court during the Heian Era. Koh was used by samurai warriors during the Shogunate period in the 14th century. The practice

Warai Matsuri
A parade headed by someone bearing offerings and followed by a long-nosed goblin (tengu), a demon (oni) and people doing sasaramai and lion dances (shishimai)

Warajihiki Matsuri
This festival takes place on the day of Monkey towards the end of September at Namikiri Shrine (Daiō Town, Shima County, Mie Prefecture), to pray for an abundant fish catch. In this ritual, a 3-meter-long straw sandal (waraji) is dragged around the town

Who were the Druze?
The Druze religion has its roots in Ismailism, a religio-philosophical movement which founded the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt in the 10th c.The Druze creed had the effect of blending Islamic monotheism with Greek philosophy and Hindu influences

Who were the Tatars?
Shirin Akiner’s “Religious Language of a Belarusian Tatar Kitab: A Cultural Monument of Islam”

Yam=Yawu=Yam-nahra=Yaw=Yhwh the God of Moses
This page examines the possble parallels or cognates of Canaanite-Phoenician deities, mythical characters, morning stars or assembly of stars in Cushite-Akkadian and Semitic-Hebrew-Biblical traditions

Yam=Yawu=Yam-nahra=Yaw=Yhwh the God of Moses
This page examines the possble parallels or cognates of Canaanite-Phoenician deities, mythical characters, morning stars or assembly of stars in Cushite-Akkadian and Semitic-Hebrew-Biblical traditions

Zurkhaneh was created during the Mithraic era
Zoorkhaneh was created during the Zoroastrian religion in the 6th. Century B.C. To follow the guidelines of this religion, the Bastanikars, who traditionally were the fervent religious people, accepted the purification of spirit and the prime values of